Suppose you wish to automate from Powershell the Visual Studio instance where the given solution is open. This small tool makes it easy.
Build the tool and load the Ceridian.RunningVSInstanceFinder type into the Powershell memory:
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> dotnet build -v:q -nologo
Build succeeded.
0 Warning(s)
0 Error(s)
Time Elapsed 00:00:01.05
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> Add-Type -Path C:\dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder\RunningVSInstanceFinder\bin\Debug\net472\RunningVSInstanceFinder.dll > $null
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder>Obtain the DTE2 object:
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res = [Ceridian.RunningVSInstanceFinder]::Find("C:\dayforce\CSTool\CSTool.sln")
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res
DTE SolutionFullName ErrorMessage
--- ---------------- ------------
System.__ComObject C:\dayforce\CSTool\CSTool.sln
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder>Now let us build inside the respective VS instance and get back the build output pane text:
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res.DTE.Solution.SolutionBuild.Build()
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $text = [Ceridian.RunningVSInstanceFinder]::GetOutputPaneText($res.DTE, "Build")
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $text.Length
6384
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $text -split "`r`n" | Select-Object -Last 2
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 0 failed, 3 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder>Now let us check the Error List pane:
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> [Ceridian.RunningVSInstanceFinder]::GetErrorList($res.DTE)
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder>I am going to botch the code on purpose, build and get the build output and the error list again:
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> echo "xyz" | Out-File -Encoding ascii -Append ..\..\CSTool\CSTool\ClassifyCmd.cs
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res.DTE.Solution.SolutionBuild.Build()
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> [Ceridian.RunningVSInstanceFinder]::GetOutputPaneText($res.DTE, "Build") -split "`r`n" | Select-Object -Last 2
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 2 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> [Ceridian.RunningVSInstanceFinder]::GetErrorList($res.DTE)
ErrorLevel : High
Description : A namespace cannot directly contain members such as fields, methods or statements
FileName : C:\dayforce\CSTool\CSTool\ClassifyCmd.cs
Line : 394
Column : 1
Project : CSTool\CSTool.csproj
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder>It is also possible to obtain the DTE2 object for a "vacant" VS instance that has no solution open. Just pass $null as the solution path:
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res.DTE.Solution.Close()
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res2 = [Ceridian.RunningVSInstanceFinder]::Find($null)
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res2
DTE SolutionFullName ErrorMessage
--- ---------------- ------------
System.__ComObject
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> [Object]::ReferenceEquals($res2.DTE, $res.DTE)
True
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder>Finally it is possible to obtain the DTE2 for multiple VS instances at once:
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res.DTE.Solution.Open("C:\dayforce\CSTool\CSTool.sln")
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res2 = [Ceridian.RunningVSInstanceFinder]::FindMany([string[]]@("C:\dayforce\CSTool\CSTool.sln", "C:\dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder\RunningVSInstanceFinder.sln"))
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res2|Format-List
Found : {[C:\dayforce\CSTool\CSTool.sln, System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Ceridian.RunningVSInstanceFinder+FindResult]],
[C:\dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder\RunningVSInstanceFinder.sln,
System.Collections.Generic.List`1[Ceridian.RunningVSInstanceFinder+FindResult]]}
ErrorMessages : {}
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res2.Found
Key Value
--- -----
C:\dayforce\CSTool\CSTool.sln {C:\dayforce\CSTool\CSTool.sln}
C:\dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder\RunningVSInstanceFinder.sln {C:\dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder\RunningVSInstanceFinder.sln}
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res2.Found['C:\dayforce\CSTool\CSTool.sln']
DTE SolutionFullName ErrorMessage
--- ---------------- ------------
System.__ComObject C:\dayforce\CSTool\CSTool.sln
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder> $res2.Found['C:\dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder\RunningVSInstanceFinder.sln']
DTE SolutionFullName ErrorMessage
--- ---------------- ------------
System.__ComObject C:\dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder\RunningVSInstanceFinder.sln
PS C:\Dayforce\DevOps\RunningVSInstanceFinder>- The code is current not available on NuGet, so to use it you need to clone the repo and build it with
dotnet build. - Bear in mind that trying to automate a VS instance with an open modal dialog (there can be other busy scenarios) results in a
COMException. - My original intention was to just implement the
FindandFindManymethods. However, I failed to obtain the Error List and the Build Output Pane contents, because theDTE2.ToolWindowsproperty is$nullin Powershell. I have asked how to do it in this StackOverflow question.
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